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GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

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GPS Tracking

wolf_packs_gps_image

“This image of GPS tracking of multiple wolves in six different packs around Voyageurs National Park was created in the framework of the Voyageurs Wolf Project. It is an excellent illustration of how much wolf packs in general avoid each other’s range.” SOURCE: Earthly Mission

Maps are powerful tools to demonstrate spatial ideas and concepts.  Wolves are territorial, and using GPS trackers to understand this really drives home the point.  Here is a similarly fantastic map of an eagle’s flight paths shows the patterns amid noise.

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As a runner, I keep track of my all my runs using some apps and Citystrides.com.  A screengrab of my “LifeMap” is included below.

Running GPS

With these tools at my disposal I stumbled on the decision to learn about my city by running every single street, exploring the cultural landscape, and make the training miles a part of a bigger goal.  With this newfound understanding of my city, I’ve mapped over 100 changes on OpenStreetMap (OSM) to give my newfound knowledge a bit of public utility.  The light blue line in the image below is the Cranston (RI) city boundary; As of March 12, I’ve officially run #EverySingleStreet, 100% of Cranston roads.  It was a quixotic goal, but an absolutely thrilling way to comibne my love of running, cartography, Cranston, and exploring the cultural landscape.

100percent
15 months in the making, a map documenting my runs on #EverySingleStreet of Cranston.

TOOLS: Using GPS data in mapping tools such as ArcGIS.com or Google Earth doesn’t require a lot of expertise, but gathering the data out in the field can usually be done with an app that can create a .GPX file (search your app store for GPX).  You can use GPS Visualizer to convert files, create GPX files or convert files to other formats.  Look at the screengrab below to see some of the options, especially the ‘sandbox’ tool which lets you create a GPX file.

GPS

GeoEd Tags: GPS, mapping, biogeography.

 

 

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The Beauty of Terraced Fields

rice china
Village houses and water filled rice terraces in Longsheng, Guangxi Province, China.

“For thousands of years, when farmers in mountainous regions have expanded their farms to grow crops on the steep slopes, they have carved massive steps into the terrain, forming terraces of many small platforms. Following the contours of the mountains, the edges of the terraces create sinuous patterns in the landscape, presenting picturesque images. Gathered here are photos from China, Switzerland, Vietnam, Peru, the Philippines, and Japan.” SOURCE: The Atlantic

This gallery of 27 terraced rice fields is absolutely fabulous.  I find these to be some of the  more beautiful cultural landscapes; I’m drawn to the great extent of agricultural  modifications of the environment, coupled with the rugged physical landscape.

GeoEd Tags: images, agriculture, landscape, China.

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Tools for Student Projects

In many geography classes, teachers will assign students a country to help them gain some depth about one particular country as a way to explore economic, demographic, cultural, political, and environmental issues.  These are some data visualization tools that deals with big data; the listed tools are some of my favorite in part because they can easily to incorporated to an ArcGIS StoryMap (especially in the Map Journal template).

  1. Economic (introductory data): Dollar Street from Gapminder

The best comparison and the most relatable thing for students to see in other countries is real people, leading regular lives.  Dollar Street brings the economic realities of other places without some of the of the negative stereotypes or romanticizing far-away places.

DollarStreet

  1. Economic (advanced data): Observation of Economic Complexity

Understanding global trade and economic data can feel overwhelming, but fortunately there are online tools that help us to visualize complex economic data. The “VISUALIZATIONS” are my favorite things to see on this site.  The Observation of Economic Complexity is MIT’s companion website to the Atlas of Economic Complexity (Harvard’s version of the same data visualization–here is my tutorial on how to use the Atlas of Economic Complexity).

OEC

  1. Demographic (introductory data): Population Pyramid

Populationpyramid.net creates interactive, population pyramids that can be downloaded as image with the raw data also available for download.  Simple, powerful, easy.

Nepal PP

  1. Demographic (advanced data): Gapminder Tools

Gapminder is a tremendous resource that I’ve shared in the past and total fertility rates is an ideal metric to see in this data visualization tool.  This is one of the best ways to visualize global statistics.  The world is changing–see how.

GapminderTools

5. Our World in Data

Like Gapminder, Our World in Data is a fantastic source of global data, maps, and charts on an incredibly wide range on topics. Type any country name in the search bar, and you’ll find a wide range of metrics.

6. ArcGIS StoryMaps

This is my principle cartographic tool that I use in GEOG 201 (Mapping our Changing World). Classic Story Maps is the feature that ArcGIS has to make user-friendly platform to share maps along with a rich, multimedia environment with a variety of pre-made templates. The video below is and introduction to the newer Story Builder which combines a variety of the elements of the templates into one that is more optimized for mobile devices.

7. Google Earth (now completely online)

Google Tours used to be a way to present a series of places on a map, with text, pictures, and videos, but that has been de-commissioned and the online version of Google Earth is now the best alternative. Yes, it works best in Google Chrome, and you’ll need a Google account to save it to your Google Drive. The video below is a brief introduction to the tools that are available to you:

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Which Countries are in the European Union in 2020, Which Aren’t, and Which Want to Join?

map-of-european-union-countries-2020-post-brexit

“The UK has finally officially left the European Union (EU), almost four years after its famous ‘Brexit’ vote, and taken the British territory of Gibraltar out with it. Here’s our updated map and list of which countries are in the EU, which ones are trying to join, and which European countries are in neither group.” SOURCE: POLGEONOW

Today I’m teaching the  my first class on “the Geography of Europe” since the UK has officially withdrawn from the European Union.  As I went looking for any updated map of the EU, I found this excellent article along with the map and thought it was worth sharing.  Since Brexit has finally been formalized, these snarky tweets were fun:

GeoEd Tags: Europe, supranationalism, UK, European Union.

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Delhi riots: City tense after Hindu-Muslim clashes leave 23 dead

Mosque
Mosques have been vandalized as religious strife grips Delhi.

“The deadliest violence in India’s capital for decades leaves 23 people dead and scores injured.” SOURCE: BBC

It is so disheartening to see the news that India is undergoing a wave of religious unrest.  As citizen and immigration laws have been enacted that have a religious component to it, many feel that this is unfairly targeting Muslim migrants and refugees.   Some see this as the beginning of a delegitimization of Muslim citizenship within India. As people are protesting these laws, there are groups that are also a violently clashing with protesters in the streets.  Some are targeting Mosques, and the police have been unable to keep the peace.  This is some nasty business that I hate to see anywhere, but if you need an example of how religion can be a centrifugal force in a country, this is a perfect example  Here is an NPR podcast (and article) that also nicely covers the topic.

GeoEd Tags: India, South Asia, conflict, political, religion.

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Mapping the Coronavirus

CoronaVirus

“We are tracking the COVID-19 spread in real-time on our interactive dashboard with data available for download. We are also modeling the spread of the virus.” SOURCE: GIS and DATA at Johns Hopkins University

UPDATE: ESRI has also created a GIS dashboard for the COVID-19 virus that complies an amazing amount of spatial data in a user-friendly format that is definitely worth your time.  Also, this article titled “Why Geography is a Key Part of Fighting the COVID-19 Coronavirus Outbreak” is another example of that shows the importance of spatial thinking in interdisciplinary contexts.

After several inaccurate maps spread misinformation (dare I say, in a viral fashion?),  I felt it would be important to not only share some good maps, but the most data-rich maps as well.  Some U.S. west coast cities, such as San Francisco, are declaring emergencies in anticipation of an outbreak. The Tokyo Marathon has been cancelled (except for the elite runners), and some are worrying out loud about whether the 2020 Tokyo Olympics games might face a similar fate.  This article nicely explains just how contagious the COVID-19 virus actually is…(short answer, it’s pretty contagious).

The video below covers 3 major economic impacts that the virus will have on the global economy.  In short, 1-Tourism and Travel, 2-Supply Chains, and 3-Flight to Quality Goods.

My favorite source is a GIS dashboard from John Hopkins that is incredibly detailed.  This is a great way to show how big data, mapping, and geography become very relevant.  Here is a link to the Center of Disease Control’s (CDC) page about the Coronavirus and a copy of their map (accurate as of Feb 24) in the image below.

outbreak-coronavirus-world
Locations with Confirmed COVID-19 Cases

GeoEd Tags: medical, mapping, GIS, statistics, mortality.

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VIDEO: My Dear Kyrgyzstan

My Dear

“Emil is a social media-obsessed entrepreneur in one of the most remote places on earth: An abandoned Soviet mining village in Kyrgyzstan. Emil has returned to put his village on the map as an international tourist destination.” SOURCE: MailChimp

This delightful video shows the former Soviet mining town of Jyrgalan and a local entrepreneur that wants to revitalize the village economy, bring in the outside world, and make is home a tourist destination.  It serves several purposes for a geography teacher.  One, it’s a great portal into a Central Asian country where most of my students don’t have any real reference points.  Two, the video highlights important geographic concepts such as tourism’s impact on indigenous cultures and globalization’s impact on previously isolated locations.  Three, this is a great case study for a cultural landscape analysis.  The video has some incredible juxtapositions; nomads wearing traditional clothes encountering adventure tourists outfitted in Patagonia gear, people in town cutting grass with scythes as well as gas lawn mowers, and traditional architectural styles intermixed with signs of modernity such as satellite antennas.  The physical and cultural landscapes in this are absolutely stunning and worth the twelve minutes of your time.

GeoEd Tags: landscape, Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia, video, tourism, globalization.

My_Dear_Kyrgyz

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Exploring Landscapes through Sport

“Way Back Home is the incredible new riding clip from Danny MacAskill, it follows him on a journey from Edinburgh back to his hometown Dunvegan, in the Isle of Skye.”

I love Danny Macaskill’s video that puts Scotland’s cultural and physical landscapes on display.  This extreme sports clip is in many ways more about the places that are being shown that infused with gorgeous physical landscapes.  The architecture, the historic sites, the everyday towns, and transportation infrastructure all speak to the importance of landscape in creating a place that is beloved by its people.

GeoED Tags: landscape, sport, UK, video.

Not surprisingly, I’m also a fan of this other video, The Ridge.  The Ridge is far more about the physical landscapes of Scotland than the cultural landscapes, but both are stunning.

“#TheRidge is the brand new film from Danny Macaskill… For the first time in one of his films Danny climbs aboard a mountain bike and returns to his native home of the Isle of Skye in Scotland to take on a death-defying ride along the notorious Cuillin Ridgeline.“

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These students make maps for the Philippines and Belize. They never leave campus to do it.

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“With Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ humming in the background, about two dozen students at George Washington University traced skinny lines and square-shaped landmarks on a satellite image of a rural chunk of Mindanao, the second-largest island in the Philippines. They are in the early stages of piecing together a map of the region where half of the country’s food is grown but where most people live in poverty.

The students carefully scanned the photos to scope out buildings and roads tucked between thick trees. The task is painstaking but necessary to create an up-to-date map. This corner of the Philippines — like large swaths of the planet — does not have any recent digital maps.” SOURCE: Washington Post

Crowd-sourced mapping is increasingly an important resource during an emergency and one of the best ways to put geographic knowledge and geospatial skills in action.  Many high school and college students around the country are learning mapping skills by creating maps for places that aren’t well-mapped and in great need.  Poorer places are often not as well mapped out by the commercial cartographic organizations and these are oftentimes the places that are most vulnerable to natural disasters.  Relief agencies depend on mapping platforms to handle the logistics of administering aid and assessing the extent of the damage and rely on these crowd-sourced data sets.  My students and I are working on this over the weekend; can you join in and help?  The projects that are marked urgent by the Red Cross are all in Haiti right now.  Here are is a video playlist that explains the project and how you can help if you are new to OpenStreetMap (OSM).  The embedded TEDx talk below discusses the advantages of using OSM in geography teaching.

GeoEd Tags: cartography, disasters, mapping, STEM.

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